After the conservative nature of stone
eggs, we're looking at all sorts in this post, as faux eggs or decorative eggs
like other collectable miniature 'favourites'; frogs, bears, rabbits, owls,
cats & dogs, barrels, pigs, elephants, turtles & tortoises, hedgehogs,
gnomes, and - these days - bloody meerkats (seemples!), they come in all sorts
of materials and sizes, and various things can be disguised as 'them'.
So we'll start with the oddest, an egg
timer, perhaps not so odd but rather obvious! I bought this in Lidl years ago as a present for my
mother (who's just celebrated her 80th!), while I bough myself a cow (to match
my - free from Argos with my works
van petrol points card - mookie sandwich-maker!), but they had several other
designs, once you have a standard mechanism for a decorative but practical
item, it's a matter of imagination and its limits as to how many versions you
chuck-out . . . note to self; must look out for soldier (probably guardsman)
egg-timer! Or robot?
Shot with it is the original 'Faux Egg'; a
basic ceramic (in this case bisque) egg, used on the farm to keep a broody-hen
sitting until you can get some fertilised eggs under her. This one is hollow,
but I've seen solid clay or earthenware ones, and even glazed ceramics.
These wooden ones ('Treen') probably served
the same purpose as the ceramic one in the previous shot, but could just as
easily be 'apprentice pieces', showing skill with the turning or carving and
sanding of wood. I feel that an apprentice piece would probably have a better
grain with contrasting colours or some interesting feature or something and
these are just for hen's nests?
As they are painted it's hard to tell if
these are wood or papier mâché underneath?
What is clear however is that three of them follow a trope, in that while they
came from different places at different times, and are painted by different
artists on slightly different-shaped eggs; they all have a song-bird on one
side and a crested hoopoe (or something!!) on the other.
I think they are oriental, and there will
be more to them; culturally speaking, some tradition with an attached story or
something? The floral/geometric, salmon-pink one is about half the size (bantam
egg) in real life, but was cropped to fit!
Equally colourful, but a cheaper technology
(who says progress has to mean better? 'Progress' is only inevitable,
directional but not necessarily an improvement!), these litho-printed tin ones
would have had a small toy or confectionary in them in the same vein as
Christmas crackers, and pre-date Kinder
by decades!
By my childhood they were being replaced by
decorative paper-veneered, 'stock-card' eggs (there's a larger one which would
have held a full-size chocolate egg - as a card 'box' - in storage so we will
return to these again one day) and now - as we know - have been replaced
completely by plastic gift eggs, available all year round.
I think the cat's probably slightly earlier
(overall quality) and I like that the rabbit is painting a giant egg, on a tin
egg that might have contained mini chocolate or sugar-candy eggs!
These might actually be trying to be
acorns, but they were with the other eggs, so I shot them all together! The
larger one is for a pot, the smaller one for a single-cup serving and they are
charged with tea-leaves and used to infuse the hot water to make tea! Both are
plated brass.
Coming back to ceramic for a full circle on
this post, we have a stenciled 'Blue & White' pattern china egg sitting in a
'Red & White' pattern china egg-cup which is transfer-printed - the reason
model kits have transfers not 'decals' (whatever they are - some
Franco-American, Cajun-Quebecois, I wouldn't be surprised to learn!), the
water-slide transfer being historically much older than the model-kit!
The china egg may even be from China, but
it's a modern one (you can tell by the less defined or fuzzy edges of the
colour) and there is an attempt at a crackle glaze - created by flicking damp
sawdust at the items while they are in the oven.
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